Monday, January 19, 2009

Back to Andor - boots 'n' all

The post office's parcel courier van arrived in my driveway bright and early this morning and I assumed it was my latest batch of "Star Trek" action figures, but no... it was a package all the way from Andor, via eBay!

A few weeks ago, I noticed some Andorian Imperial Guard uniform boots up for auction, as part of the It's a Wrap! eBay auctions (of "Star Trek" props, costumes and set pieces from Paramount's soundstages and warehouses), which have continued running for longer than any fan could have imagined. I've been very cautious about peeking at the auctions. eBay is soooo addictive. I'd already won the Andorian ambassador's outfit from "Enterprise" in 2007, as regular readers of this blog would know - and I did buy myself some very cool farmed-crocodile skin boots to go with it, but now I know how Andorians prevent their robes from trailing on the ground... they simply wear very, very tall boots!

Look what I won last month, and which just arrived:

They are purposely lightly "weathered" with grey paint, but otherwise are almost-new, commercially-available, leather boots. The big gamble was that the auction description omitted a size. They looked rather tiny. A tag inside each boot indicate that they were worn by one Chase Bandy, whom the Internet tells me has also been a stand-in on a Topher Grace movie, "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!", has played a minor recurring character in TV's "Days of Our Lives" - and once attended the 2005 Hollywood celebrity gala premiere of "The Headhunter", at least long enough to be photographed by one M. Castner.

Chase Bandy,up and coming Hollywood spunk?

Now that the boots are here, I can see that they are GBX brand boots. As they'd appeared online, and even when pulling them out of the box and bubblewrap, I was convinced they were quite small. Imagine my surprise when they had US size "10.5" marked inside! It's an optical illusion caused by the huge soles, I guess. Even placing my foot alongside the boots, there was no way I was going to be able to wear them, but... they are a perfect fit!

No, I didn't blue my legs just for the occasion, Sorry.

Art Asylum did a good rendition of the Andorian boots on their Shran action figure.

By wonderful coincidence, I also won some Andorian medical dressings, in a different auction lot, the same week, and the items arrived together. The bandage pads have Andorian script screenprinted onto them, and were probably created for the episode featuring the destruction of Shran's ship, the Kumari. Lots of gravely injured Andorians in that one. (Was Chase Bandy one of them?)

I guess the bandages will be perfect for my heels if my new Andorian boots cause some big blue blisters!

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About me

Otherwise known as "Therin of Andor", Ian McLean has had an active association with "Star Trek" and science fiction media fandom in Australia since 1980. Before then he was an avid fan of the "Batman" TV series (60s) and the Australian TV classic, "Number 96" (70s).